ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- John Banville wooed me with The Sea. Ancient Light cemented him as one of my literary loves. This extraordinary novel is ultimately a story of self discovery and love. A teenage boy falls in love with his best friend's mother, an affair ensues. Years later he is compelled to recall this strange affair with honesty and affection. A work of such gravity soaked in reality I have never encountered. A thousand stars! Meg

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'Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.' Alexander Cleave, an actor who thinks his best days are behind him, remembers his first unlikely affair as a teenage boy in a small town in 1950s Ireland: the illicit meetings in a rundown cottage outside town; assignations in the back of his lover's car on sunny mornings, rain-soaked afternoons. And with these early memories comes something sharper and much darker - the more recent recollection of the actor's own daughter's suicide ten years before. This is the story of a life rendered brilliantly vivid: the obsession and selfishness of young love and the terrifying shock of grief. It is a dazzling novel, funny, utterly pleasurable and devastatingly moving in the same moment.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- This is a collection of stories that are essentially about love. Old love, new love, scared love, uncertain love. Schlink explores beautifully the human condition and succeeds in laying bare all those thoughts and emotions that come with all types of love and relationships, whether they be unconditional or unrequited. For every Schlink fan and those soon to become fans. Meg

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ABBEY'S CHOICE OCTOBER 2012 From Bernhard Schlink, the internationally best-selling author of The Reader, come seven provocative and masterfully calibrated stories. A keen dissection of the ways in which we play with truth and less-than-truth in our lives. Summer Lies brims with the delusions, the passions, the outbursts, and the sometimes irrational justifications people make within a mélange of beautifully rendered relationships. In ”After the Season,” a man falls quickly in love with a woman he meets on the beach but wrestles with his incongruous feelings of betrayal after he learns she’s rich. In “Johann Sebastian Bach on Ruegen,” a son tries to put his resentment toward his emotionally distant father behind him by proposing a trip to a Back festival but soon realizes, during his efforts to reconnect, that it wasn’t his father who was the distant one. A philandering playwright is accused of infidelity by his wife in “The Night in Baden-Baden,” but he sees her accusations as nothing more than a means to exculpate himself of his guilt as he carries on with his ways. And in “Stranger in the Night,” an obliging professor becomes an accomplice—not entirely unwittingly—to the temporary escape of a charismatic fugitive on a delayed flight from New York to Frankfurt.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- This collection of short stories is set in the flat fenlands of eastern England. Some stories are mere fragments of language, others are technically and cleverly proficient and others still are achingly detailed observations of people and the landscape. All of them, though, are the work of a master craftsman, who catches a multiplicity of voices and characters in believable situations and treats all of them with dignity (even – or especially – the characters who are society’s refuse). Each book McGregor has produced is different from the others and this one just confirms what I believe is his amazing talent; when I had finished, I went right back to the beginning and re-read them all. Lindy

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- McGregor's unique writing style may be daunting at first but perservere and you will be rewarded with one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking, real novels of our generation. A descent into the character's world that is so subtle that you may never want to fully let go. Meg

A man builds a tree house by a river, in anticipation of the coming flood. A sugar-beet crashes through a young woman's windscreen. A boy sets fire to a barn. A pair of itinerant labourers sit by a lake, talking about shovels and sex, while fighter-planes fly low overhead and prepare for war. These aren't the sort of things you imagine happening to someone like you. But sometimes they do. Set in the flat and threatened fenland landscape, where the sky is dominant and the sea lurks just beyond the horizon, these delicate, dangerous, and sometimes deeply funny stories tell of things buried and unearthed, of familiar places made strange, and of lives where much is hidden, much is at risk, and tender moments are hard-won.

ABBEY'S CHOICE FEBRUARY 2013 ----- ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- For a debut novel to feel so intimate and smooth can only be an indication of masterpieces to come. I absolutely adored this novel. From start to finish it had me wrapped up in its honesty. Alice has returned 'home' to London after being abroad for sometime, her father is dying and Alice only has limited time with him. Daniel has spent the last 20 something years of his life searching for something that he will probably never find. Since Alice's return she too is searching for something. Unsure of whether she should stay in London, or continue exploring the world. Advice seems to be thrown at her from all angles but as family secrets get uncovered and new mysteries begin, Alice's choice is perhaps made for her in a way she never expected. Daniel too uncovers a trail of breadcrumbs and as their paths seem to cross, then parallel then join we ache with them and cry with them and love with them. Their story will teach you more than ten things about love, it will teach you about yourself, the power of humanity and the importance that family is what you make it. Meg

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This is a uniquely heart-wrenching and life-affirming novel for fathers and daughters everywhere. Alice has just returned to London from months of travelling abroad. She is late to hear the news that her father is dying, and returns to the family home only just in time to say goodbye. Daniel hasn't had a roof over his head for over thirty years, but to him the city of London feels like home in a way that no bricks and mortar ever did. He spends every day searching for his daughter; the daughter he has never met. Until now...Heart-wrenching and life-affirming, this is a unique story of love lost and found, of rootlessness and homecoming and the power of the ties that bind. It is a story for fathers and daughters everywhere.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The remarkable story of Eugenia is told through meticulous and highly impressive research and empathy. Although clearly written through the eyes of a lawyer, Tedeschi's years of experience only enhance this story of misunderstanding, love and prejudice. A symbolic part of Sydney's history, Eugenia is a tale of one woman who lived as a man and had two wives, that is truly fascinating. Meg

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This story is true and yet you will find it hard to believe.

In 1920, a woman named Eugenia Falleni was charged with the murder of her wife. Eugenia had lived in Australia for twenty-two years as a man and during that time officially married twice. She lived a full married life with her first wife, Annie, for four years before Annie realised that her husband was a woman. Even after Annie knew, they lived together for eight months before they went on a bush picnic, when Annie mysteriously died. Her body was not identified for almost three years, and during this time Eugenia married again, this time to Lizzie. When Eugenia was finally arrested and charged with Annie's murder, the police attempted to tell Lizzie that her husband was a man. She laughed at them - she was so convinced that her husband was a man that she thought she was pregnant to him! This is the story of one of the most extraordinary criminal trials in legal history anywhere in the world.  The book traces Eugenia's history: from her early years in an Italian immigrant family in New Zealand, to her brutal treatment when she first tried living as a man. The story then follows the twenty-two years that she lived in Sydney as Harry Crawford  - exploring how Harry managed to convince two wives that he was a man. The trial of Eugenia Falleni for Annie's murder is extensively analysed in a clear and easily understood way by the author, Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC, one of Australia's foremost criminal law barristers with experience both as a prosecutor and a defender. The book continues with Eugenia's fascinating life after her trial. The last eight years of her life are described, in which she was forced by an unforgiving society to live life as a woman. This book is true crime, true grit and truly gripping.  It includes: a tragic main character who believed she was a man trapped in the body of a woman, sexual deception in the dark, an allegation of murder, an over exuberant police investigation, an erudite judge, a determined prosecutor, an overwhelmed defender, a Press gone feral, a public clamouring for blood - a mix that inevitably led to a miscarriage of justice.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- I have only just caught up with the rest of the world with my recent reading of 1984. I loved every page! I shouldn't have waited this long. If you haven't read it yet or know someone who hasn't read it - do it, then make them do it. Love, love, love! Finally understand all the fuss! Meg

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This is the essential edition of the essential book of modern times, 1984 , now annotated for students with an introduction by D. J. Taylor. Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Maxine McKew's brilliant career as a journalist who was not afraid to ask the hard questions provides a perfect background a perfect background for her recent expose on the turbulence of the Labor Party in recent years. Starting with (but not exclusive to) her overthrow of John Howard for the seat of Bennelong in 2007 and throwing us onto the rollercoaster of the last five years. Maxine writes with passion, astute observation, humility and above all a sense of wonder of how it went wrong for the Labor Party. Meg

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'Julia Gillard was impatient for the prime ministership, and either worked with or allowed others to manufacture a sense of crisis around Rudd's leadership. She then cut down a prime minister in his first term and tried to pretend it was in the national interest to do so. Since then, she has been the architect of her own misfortune.' In Tales from the Political Trenches Maxine McKew counters the view that Julia Gillard was a reluctant deputy who was forced to move against a chaotic and dysfunctional Kevin Rudd - and offers a different version of events. Her story is an intimate account of one of the most tumultuous periods in Australian politics, as well as a tale of personal change. She brings a reporter's eye and an insider's knowledge to a story that has caused despair among Labor supporters and produced disillusionment among the electorate. After winning a spectacular victory against Prime Minister John Howard in 2007, McKew was one of the many casualties of the disastrous 2010 election campaign, when Labor was left clinging to the wreckage and forced into minority government.  Still dealing with her own disappointments in a political career cut short by the machinations of her own party, and with more questions than answers, McKew has spent the past year talking to her colleagues in an effort to understand what went wrong. Tales from the Political Trenches is a must-read for those who have followed the events of the past few years and are still asking, 'What the hell happened?'

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Murakami writes with such conviction that you are instantly immersed in the characters' lives, their struggles and confusion. Suburban reality is quickly turned into what most might regard as nightmare or suspended eroticism. If you haven't read any Murakami yet you should start with this novel. Murakami's imagination dances with you upon the pages and you will be left breathless with anticipation. A beautiful love story combined with suspense and ambition. Brilliant from the first word to the last. Meg

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Toru Okada's cat has disappeared and this has unsettled his wife, who is herself growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has started receiving. As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. A reading guide is included.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Tina Fey is one of those women you would love to hate - but can't! Funny, smart, sexy, successful and respected for all of the above. A beautifully crafted work of hilarity and information, Ms Fey will not disappoint - her bio's not bad too... Meg

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Before Liz Lemon, before Weekend Update, before Sarah Palin, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy. ( Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!).

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Ah Poe… My all-time favourite! If you haven't read any Poe you're in for a treat. If you've only read some - I dare you to read his complete works! If you need a present for that one 'emo' teenager you have in your family, Poe's beautiful prose and gothic imagination is the perfect gift. Meg

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Few have crafted stories as haunting as those by Edgar Allan Poe. Collected here to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth are sixteen of his best tales accompanied by twenty essays from beloved authors, including T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, and Joseph Wambaugh, among others, on how Poe has changed their life and work. Michael Connelly recounts the inspiration he drew from Poe's poetry while researching one of his books. Stephen King reflects on Poe's insight into humanity's dark side in The Genius of 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Jan Burke recalls her childhood terror during late-night reading sessions. Tess Gerritsen, Nelson DeMille, and others remember the classic B-movie adaptations of Poe's tales. And in The Thief, Laurie R. King complains about how Poe stole all the good ideas . . . or maybe he just thought of them first. Powerful and timeless, this collection is a celebration of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- A grand, brave and surprising novel. Combining typically Australian 'laugh out loud' humour (without being cliche'd), rollicking adventure and tenderness. This heartwarming tale is for anyone who has a father who requires being parented and who you roll your eyes at, at least twice a day. Meg

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The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them.  Heroes or criminals? Crackpots or visionaries? Relatives or enemies? It's a simple family story.. From the New South Wales bush to bohemian Paris, from sports fields to strip clubs, from the jungles of Thailand to a leaky boat in the Pacific, A Fraction of the Whole follows the Deans on their freewheeling, scathingly funny and finally deepy moving quest to leave their mark on the world.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Winton displays a rare aptitude for subtle horror in this novel. In my humble opinion, Winton perfectly conjures the Australian bush, with imagery you won't be able to shake for months. Winton delivers a perfect novel so real you will think you too, were privy to this unsettling time. Meg

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Night falls. In a lonely valley called the Sink, four people prepare for a quiet evening. Then in his orchard, Murray Jaccob sees a moving shadow. Across the swamp, his neighbour Ronnie watches her lover leave and feels her baby roll inside her. And on the veranda of the Stubbses' house, a small dog is torn screaming from its leash by something unseen. Nothing will ever be the same again.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- As an avid Jamie fan I always delight in his latest release. Everyone is busy and for those who love cooking as much as I do but haven't got time to scratch themselves, Jamie has perfect solutions neatly, easily and deliciously laid out for you within these pages. This book is genius! Meg

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In the bestselling Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, Jamie Oliver will teach you how to make good food super fast! Jamie proves that, by mastering a few tricks and being organized and focused in the kitchen, it is absolutely possible, and easy, to get a complete meal on the table in the same amount of time you'd normally spend making one dish! The 50 brand-new meal ideas in this book are exciting, varied and seasonal. They include main course recipes with side dishes as well as puddings and drinks, and are all meals you'll be proud to serve your family and friends. Jamie has written the recipes in a way that will help you make the most of every single minute in the kitchen. This book is as practical as it is beautiful, showing that with a bit of preparation, the right equipment and some organization, hearty, delicious, quick meals are less than half an hour away. With the help of Jamie Oliver and Jamie's 30-Minute Meals , you'll be amazed by what you're able to achieve. There is only one Jamie Oliver. Great to watch. Great to cook . (Delia Smith). Jamie Oliver's career started as a chef at the River Cafe, where he was quickly spotted by the television company that made him famous as The Naked Chef. He has since published a huge range of bestselling cookery books, including The Naked Chef , The Return of the Naked Chef , Happy Days with the Naked Chef, Jamie's Kitchen , Jamie's Dinners , Jamie's Italy , Cook with Jamie , Jamie at Home, Jamie's Ministry of Food , Jamie Does , Jamie's Great Britain and Jamie's 15-Minute Meals.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- It is hard to review this classic novel without giving its secrets away. So instead, I will say 'This book succeeded in shocking the unshockable, scaring the unscareable and delivered all that was promised from friends, colleagues and the master of the ghost story, Susan Hill. PS - Watch the movie too! Meg

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A classic ghost story: the chilling tale of a menacing specter haunting a small English town. Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford--a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway--to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow's house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images--a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed all in black.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Angela Carter's writing is always a playground of wonder and Nights at the Circus is a playground of all sorts of delights. Sophie Fevvers is the talk of the town. A woman with a pair ofwings growing out of her back usually stirs up conversation and Fevvers is no exception. Carter was unashamedly feminist and she injects this into Fevvers, who embodies the 21st century woman with elegance and pride. However it is not a novel preaching feminism, it is simply an adventure which crescendos into pure joy. A journalist (who prides himself on being a noted sceptic) takes it upon himself to investigate the phenomenon of Fevvers, and in doing so gets sucked in to a world he could never have even dreamed existed. Through events beyond his control he follows Fevvers and her entourage - some old friends, some circus members, some simply lost souls - through Petersburg and Siberia and ultimately discovers more than he set out to. Carter demands you run alongside her in this eccentric and vivid novel, there is no room for scepticism nor pre-conceived ideas. The reward? A feeling of such enchantment you will wonder whether you yourself haven't just run away to join the circus… Meg

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Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe's capitals, part swan ...or all fake? Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The meanings of these three words have begun to be misused and misinterpreted more than ever. This book is essential reading for the current political period in Australia. These essays really will make you think... Meg

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In early 2007, Sydney PEN commissioned the 3 Writers Project, a series of essays and public lectures in which three of our leading and acclaimed writers - Alexis Wright, Gideon Haigh and Christos Tsiolkas - tackled topics of vital importance to contemporary Australia: tolerance, prejudice and fear. Allen + Unwin is honoured to publish the essays in one collection, with an introduction from Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee. Christos Tsiolkas questions why the notion of tolerance has replaced the language of justice, equality and rights in today's political vocabulary. He asks why the liberal left has failed to counter the rhetoric of the 'clash of civilisations'. Tsiolkas claims this is a failed logic which damns multiculturalism in favour of nationalism. He argues that in this new globalised world, we need to create a set of ethics that goes beyond tolerance. Gideon Haigh traces the phenomenon of nationalism from its enlightenment origins through its fascist excesses and examines how Australia arrived at its own sense of nationhood. What underlies our latest incarnation: a shrill, aggressive, brittle politics of narcissism, pioneered by Pauline Hanson, and pandered to by John Howard.  It also ponders how the process reduced the liberal left to mute onlookers.  Alexis Wright asserts that Australia's lack of tolerance and adoption of prejudice as patriotism has led to a fear that paralyses both Aboriginal and white Australians. She asks whether fear can rob hope, and argues passionately that we must resist personal and collective fear and trust literature to tell the truth about 'the darkness inside'. This impassioned and provocative trinity of essays is testament to the linguistic power and fierce intellect of these important Australian writers.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Anyone who is a fan of The Manic Street Preachers will know who Richy Edwards is. A rebel, a tortured soul, band member and mystery. This bitter-sweet based on his life is thoroughly researched and hauntingly real. A 'must read' for anyone with a touch of Manic in them! Meg

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In the last two decades, Manic Street Preachers have established themselves as one of the UK's more enduring, intelligent and credible rock groups, with nine Top Ten albums, 16 Top Ten singles, three Number Ones and a brace of Brit Awards. But that quest for greatness has seen the band follow a difficult, sometimes torturous path, with one of their number  -  the gifted yet deeply troubled Richey Edwards  -  abandon that quest altogether for destinations still unknown.  Nailed To History  traces the slow yet inexorable climb of the South Wales band from their late 80s origins as glam punk inspired, though critically derided 'Generation Terrorists' to their current position as respected art rock intellectuals  -  a fact underlined by 2009's award winning disc, A Journal For Plague Lovers. It also examines the life and complex personality of Richey Edwards, whose highly politicised, morally disquieting wordplay defined much of the Manics' early appeal  -  his personal demons writ large across 1994's  dark masterwork , The Holy Bible.  Edward's evermore extreme behaviour culminated in his sad, strange disappearance on February 1, 1995 and forced the colleagues he left behind to re-examine their very purpose before making a triumphal return with 1997's million selling Everything Must Go. A story of  blood, honour and enduring friendship  marked with  tales of boredom, alienation and occasional despair,  Everlasting contains interviews with those close to the band, full album reviews, an up to date discography and rare and unseen photos of the band.

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The Meg and Mog stories are children's classics. Children everywhere love the bright colours and the adventures they have. Meg

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There are surprises galore for Meg, Mog and Owl in these three classic Meg and Mog stories:  Meg's Eggs ,  Meg at Sea  and  Mog in the Fog . As ever, Meg casts her spells with the best of intentions but always with hilarious results. Children will love exploring the colours, sounds and shapes in this bumper volume, perfect for sharing or reading alone.